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Cross-platform development "just a nightmare," says Pete Hines

Bethesda's woe over development across Xbox and PlayStation, while "much easier" with Xbox One and PS4, it remains "just a nightmare." What helps is that both next-gens are "high-end PCs" architecturally.

Despite all that sameness, Xbox One and PS4 remain very individual from each other. Bethesda had notorious troubles with PS3 Skyrim which delayed DLC by months.

Many studios have praised Microsoft and Sony for unveiling their console hardware as 'PCs in disguise', with very powerful AMD chipsets and generous banks of RAM.

"It's really not easy, but it's certainly much easier," Hines told OXM. "I'm not trying to insult Sony or Microsoft, but they're high-end PCs, the way they're architectured. Though they're still in development, they're not done, they're much easier to develop for." Working on all platforms at the same time is the source of the hellish nightmare.

"They don't all play with each other. PC and Mac play together, but Xbox One is its own thing and PS4 is its own thing. The whole cross-platform thing is just a nightmare." Ultimately it's a learning experience that never ends, and Hines points to the technical evolution from Oblivion to Skyrim.

"Much like Xbox 360, all the work that you do just helps more when you go to do it again. When you look at Skyrim and you go back and look at Oblivion, and look at all the content and what we're putting on the screen, it's a bit night and day."

"It probably doesn't seem that different, but if you actually go back and look, we accomplished so much more," Hines concluded. "So the further forward we go, the better and better it's going to be." Bethesda is currently developing the next Fallout which will no doubt take advantage of Xbox One and PS4.